Why are you concerned about activation? There should be no activation problems if the hard drive is the only thing you're changing. I've copied drives multiple times without issue, but even if it wanted you to activate, you're allowed to replace a hard drive so activation shouldn't be an issue. Just do it.

Also, Windows 7 Backup is potentially a full image backup - you can simply boot to the Win7 DVD and restore (though I THINK the Win7 backup utility requires you to restore to a drive of equal or greater size. You might have to use a third party if the SSD is smaller (which I suspect it is).

I have not worked with SSDs. But windows activation is triggered on major hardware change and changing the drive is one of those major changes, however I am not 100% sure it will trigger reactivation after imaging. I did some searching but am getting mixed results.

Is your image from an OEM computer, e.g. was Windows 7 pre-installed when you purchased it? If so, I think activation will not be triggered. If it is a retail copy of Windows 7, it may trigger activation.

I did find some information on this forum link that details what Windows looks for to determine if reactivation is needed.

I don't expect reactivation issues - and if so, the worst is I will have to call them up and discuss it. The only issue I'm concerned about is if the image restore will foul up the alignment settings from the fresh windows 7 install.

Ok sorry, I think I'm getting off track then, the real issue is that of alignment, not one about activation and such. Depending on the age of your HDD, it was probably formatted as a 512 byte sector drive by manufacturer. The latest HDDs and (I think) SSDs are formatted to the new native 4K sector format, but some emulate the old 512 byte standard.

If we can get some information from you on the make and model of your SSD, we can probably find that out.

Ok thanks for the information. I found a good article on the HDD to SSD copy and alignment. It indicates that since your image has Windows 7 SP1, it should work by default. However, if there is a problem with performance, the article shows how to fix it with a third party utility by realignment. The last page shows step by step for copying with correct alignment.

There is also NO reason to do an install before you restore an image -- that will have no bearing on the alignment of the SSD (restoring the image is going to completely overwrite the initial install).

Just use any good imaging utility that supports scaling and copy your current hard drive to the SSD. It will work fine. I generally use Image for DOS, but any good imaging utility will work.

By the way the M500's are excellent SSDs. I've installed 3 of the 240GB versions in the past two weeks. The only SSDs I use these days are Intel and Crucial.

This Micro Tutorial will teach you how to reformat your flash drive. Sometimes your flash drive may have issues carrying files so this will completely restore it to manufacturing settings. Make sure to backup all files before reformatting.
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